Margarita Martinez Cannon has over 25 years experience in all aspects of the theater. Very active in the New Mexico theater community, Ms. Cannon was one of the founders of the award winning La Compania de Teatro de Alburquerque. In addition to its home base in Albuquerque, La Compania toured, culminating in a performance at the Joseph Papp Theater Festival in New York. Since moving to Los Angeles in 1985, Ms. Cannon's producing credits include the Hispanic Film Project at Universal Studios and El Juez, a Spanish language version of "The Judge." She currently produces the Golden Eagle Awards, given to the Latino community for outstanding achievement in the arts. She's cast hundreds of commercials and dozens of film and TV projects here and overseas since coming to LA.
Jenny Gago, 2nd vice president, is an award-winning reknowned Latina actress. Feature film roles include OLD GRINGO, for which she received a Golden Eagle Award, BOUND BY HONOR and her critically acclaimed performance spanning over 40 years as the matriarch in MI FAMILIA: MY FAMILY. Jenny starred as Mrs. Bardales, the dedicated high school principal on the ABC series, DANGEROUS MINDS. Education is a running theme in Jenny's life and career. For the past 5 years she has volunteered at Career Days in elementary and junior high schools. She has been honored by the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, Imagen Awards, National Council of LaRaza, Color Me Bright Foundation, TALECO Education Foundation, the Hispanic Women's Network of Texas and the BRAVO Awards. Jenny stars in the short film VICKY, which deals with educating young adults on the abuse of date rape. "Hollywood is a powerful medium, and I am a huge advocate for us being responsible. When a project comes up, especially connected to the well-being of young people, I want to be a part of it." Jenny began her career with 12th Night Repertory, where she toured schools for 6 years as an actress and wrote or co-wrote 12 plays which toured the schools. One of those plays, THE VOYAGE OF THE SAME-ITES, about prejudice and racism, was made into a TV special which aired on PBS. Following 12th Night, she appeared as a series regular in the thought provoking and insightful Fox Series, ALIEN NATION and DEA. TV guest appearances and movies include JAG, CHICAGO HOPE, FX, THE PRETENDER, A PROMISED LAND, UNSPEAKABLE ACTS, BECAUSE MOMMY WORKS, BODY AND SOUL , MILLENNIUM and the HBO telefilm GRAND AVENUE.
Ann Greer, president/treasurer, trained at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Scripps College in Claremont. A Drama-Logue Award Winner, Ann acted with Actors' Alley, South Coast Repertory, the Globe Playhouse and the Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company, and has served on the boards of Actors' Alley and Women In Theater. Ann worked with the 12th Night Repertory as an actress and as an administrator/producer for 4 years. She toured schools for 2 years before branching out into producing and is very familiar with the physical and mental demands of going to different locations daily. School tour credits include SHAKESPEARE, a workshop for 9-14 year olds; THE FRUIT OF HER HANDS, a celebration of Jewish heroines; and all the shows produced by ETC. She co-produced HOT L BALTIMORE at Actors' Alley which won 2 Drama-Logue Awards in 1981 before entering the corporate world. Management and marketing experience include Embassy Home Entertainment, ETD Distributing (where she was their first woman branch manager in charge of video distribution to over 500 retailers spread across 11 Western states), Palisades Entertainment and Wherehouse Entertainment where she successfully managed an annual $21,000,000 budget. Helping to form ETC in 1993, she is thrilled to be able to bring her business and marketing experience back to her love: education and theater!
Maria Trujillo Lans, board member, has over 15 years involvement in fundraising and audience development for performing and visual arts organizations. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Symphony Association and A Noise Within theater company and is an active supporter of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Long Beach Opera and the San Francisco Opera.
Michael McLeod, 1st Vice President, is currently VP, Marketing & Sales, Universal Home Video. He has over 25 years experience in all aspects of finance, marketing and management. He began his career in finance at London Records and then moved to marketing and sales at Warner Home Video.
Devorah Ross, Secretary, (and Artistic Director of ETC) is a graduate of UCLA, and was a founding member of the New Artef Players, originating one of the roles in the acclaimed Holocaust drama, SURVIVORS. She later starred as YENTL in the West Coast Premier of the play made famous by Barbra Streisand's film. Shortly after graduating from UCLA, Dev went to work for 12th Night Repertory as an actress, director and writer. Dev created the synthesis of movement, text and sound which became the cornerstone of all 12th Night and now ETC plays, writing and directing over 70 plays for the schools. Her book for ONCE UPON A GENESIS at the Westwood Playhouse won a Drama-Logue Award for Best New Musical. A five-time Emmy nominee, Dev won 2 Emmys: one for the educational children's series, TNRC PRESENTS and one for Walt Disney TV Animation's THE NEW ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH. As a Disney staff writer she worked on such series as RESCUE RANGERS, WINNIE THE POOH and THE LITTLE MERMAID. She wrote the first four LAND BEFORE TIME sequels for Steven Spielberg's Amblin at MCA/Universal and is currently working on LAND BEFORE TIME IX. Other credits include FOX CUBHOUSE and a Christmas special for FOX TV, Classic Fairy Tales for Film Roman, several episodes of the BOOK OF VIRTUES cartoon series, BALTO 11 (Universal) and CLIFFORD, the TV series based on the acclaimed books.
Lee Saltz, educator/parent, holds Lifetime Elementary and Secondary Teaching Credentials. She has worked 35 plus years with the Los Angeles Unified School District as an educator, specializing in health education, peer facilitation trainings and coordination of smoking prevention and venereal diseases peer counseling projects. Since 1986, she has been an intervention advisor for Impact, the school based student assistance program. Her B.A. is from UCLA and her M.A. is from Immaculate Heart College. Other non profit boards she has served on include Planned Parenthood, Adolescent Pregnancy Childwatch; and the Healthy Start Program Coalition.
Robin Montgomery, Board Member, combines 25 years of community service with 25 years as an accomplished marketing executive with diverse companies such as Max Factor, Columbia Pictures Home Video, Embassy Home Entertainment and Bonneville Worldwide Entertainment. A member of Women In Film, Women In Advertising and the International Documentary Association, Robin was one of the first female presidents in home video. She has guest lectured in Communications at USC and at Cal State Northridge. A devoted wife and mother as well as marketing executive, other charitable service includes Variety International Children's Charities, the Stroke Activity Center, Pegasus Riding Academy for the Handicapped and Animal Samaritans.